Hope lives in action. Are we going to build people up or focus on tearing them down? I prefer to build people up.
Laurel Highlands Workforce and Opportunity Center Graduation Ceremony: September 5th, 2025
On Friday, September 5th the Cohort 5 students of our center celebrated their graduation ceremony. Below are my remarks I made during the graduation ceremony:
Good afternoon, I am Pat Wallace Chairman of the Board for the Laurel Highlands Workforce and Opportunity Center and on behalf of our board I want to congratulate you on your successful completion of our 28-week Clinical Medical Assistant program. I also want to thank our board of directors, staff and particularly all our instructors that made it possible for you to successfully graduate. But mostly I want to recognize you our graduates, for the hard work and dedication you have made in yourself to complete your certification. You, your family and our community are now stronger because of your accomplishment.
My wife Kim and I founded this Center to help make our community a healthier place to live. Both of us know the hardships and challenges each of you have faced. Life is not easy. If you listen to the media of the day, you might conclude there is no hope in this world. But if you have a connection to purpose and a skill set that can make a difference in our daily lives’ life becomes hopeful, meaningful and complete. In Rebecca Heiss’s recent book “Springboard: Transform Stress to Work for You” “A study of workplace interventions to reduce stress found only one consistent strategy that mitigates the negative effects of stress-serving others. We all carry invisible stressors or experienced barriers in our lives that prevent us from achieving our full potential. But we are all also potential sources of relief for one another. In a world obsessed with self-optimization and individual preservation the most effective act to a healthier community might be the simplest one: noticing when someone else needs help and then providing it” (WSJ). So, as you move on from here pay it forward when you see someone in need- what you have been given here.
In another notable book written by Bill Strickland “Make the Impossible Possible” we learned that life is not something you simply pursue it is something that you create, moment by moment. And that every one of us has the potential for remarkable achievement. And that if we facilitate connections with others we accomplish so much more. I am honored to have Bill here with us today as your commencement speaker. Bill Strickland and I have been friends for over twenty years, he is a visionary social entrepreneur, educator and community leader whose life’s work has inspired people of hope, opportunity and human potential. His book captures his remarkable journey from a struggling student in Pittsburgh to the founder of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation, an internationally acclaimed center for arts, education and job training. Through his story Strickland shows how passion, perseverance and a belief in people’s innate capabilities can transform lives and communities. His work and writings stand as powerful testaments to the idea that by providing dignity, inspiration, and opportunity, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results.
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A special thank you to Bill Strickland our commencement speaker; pictured above with the graduates.
Congratulations to the Laurel Highlands Workforce and Opportunity Center Graduates – here’s to new beginnings and a brighter future ahead! And thank you to all of you who have supported the Laurel Highlands Workforce and Opportunity Center. Together we are making a difference in our community helping individuals who have been marginalized and now can provide for themselves and give their children a safe and nurturing environment from where they can succeed.
Patrick R. Wallace